


covered in sea salt

by ah_choo (klarkson)



Series: mermaid vs. sailor [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M, mermaids!!! mermaids are cool, or mermen i should say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 17:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7370659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/klarkson/pseuds/ah_choo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Jeonghan sighs.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>“This time I’m going to ignore this, and I hope there won’t be a next time. But if I’ll find you interacting with that human again...” He shakes his head. “I will personally rip off your scales, understood?”</i>
  <br/>
  <i>Jeonghan’s long black hair and bloody red tail make him look very scary, so Mingyu just nods.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>“Yes, understood.”</i>
  <br/>
  <i>That doesn’t stop him from going to the beach the next day.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	covered in sea salt

**Author's Note:**

> • hii, i'm back again, making sure the jigyu tag isn't abandoned!  
> • title from marina and the diamonds' _daddy was a sailor_  
>  • ~~i can't draw but i did[a small doodle](https://twitter.com/bbywooz/status/749323122587893764) of the boys from this fic, you can check it out~~  
>  • btw this is my longest fic in english!! *throws confetti* i hope i didn't mess up too much haha

Hands gripping firmly the wet rock, Mingyu slowly peeks from behind it. He immediately notices the boy with lilac hair sitting on the pier like basically every afternoon these days. He has that brown thing with him again and the black stick he scratches the thing with after opening it. Mingyu figured it was writing, but different than writing he knows from the depths of the sea.

“What are you doing?” he hears a voice that successfully scares him, making him fall into the water with loud splash.

“Shit, hyung,” he says after resurfacing. The other merman chuckles. “Don’t do this to me, okay?”

“Do what?” Jeonghan tilts his head to the side, faking innocence. Mingyu scoffs and wants to get away, but the older grips his arm. “But seriously, I was calling for you earlier, didn’t you hear?”

Mingyu just blinks. His mind was totally occupied with the pretty human with colorful hair.

“But answer my question, what were you doing? Spying on humans again?”

The younger’s cheeks turn slightly red and he throws a quick glance over his shoulder. The boy still sits there, thoughtfully looking up at the sky.

“No, of course not! I was, uh… trees! Yes, the trees are really beautiful,” he stutters and Jeonghan rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, sure. But you know that many mermaids and merman done this before, right? It’s nothing bad to watch humans sometimes. But if you want to become human… Well, then it _gets_ bad.” The older looks at him expectantly. Mingyu shakes his head.

“No, hyung, you don’t have to worry about it,” he replies honestly. He really wasn’t ever thinking about having legs and living up there. It’s just… This boy is so captivating. His face, round and soft, sometimes looking so peaceful, sometimes worried, and sometimes really angry. Sometimes Mingyu tries to imagine what would he say to him if he had a chance, but he knows that won’t happen. Not only because he’s too shy, but it’s against the rules. And Mingyu is not a rebel of any sort, or that’s what he likes to think about himself.

“Good.” Jeonghan looks relieved. He swims closer to the rock they are hiding behind and peeks, to see what Mingyu has been watching earlier. “Oh, just a human in a natural habitat.”

This time it’s Mingyu who rolls his eyes.

“And what were you expecting, hyung?”

Jeonghan turns around and shrugs.

“Dunno. So, are you done with looking? We need you to help us a bit with that...”

“Yeah, I know.” He sighs and looks for the last time at the boy, who’s writing something furiously. He dives, silver tail glittering for a second above the surface.

He doesn’t know, but the lilac haired boy notices.

***

Mingyu saw him for the first time last spring, he had pink hair then. He wasn’t the first human he’s ever seen, but undoubtedly the most beautiful. The way his nose scrunched when he was writing, his slender fingers (sometimes wrapped in some colorful fabric strips which Mingyu wondered what are for) holding gently his stuff, the smile that appeared on his face when the weather was nice and the sea looked particularly beautiful…

Young merman was fascinated by him.

He wouldn’t admit it to anyone though; they would say he’s stupid, because falling in love with a human is the dumbest thing a mermaid can do. But he wasn’t in love with the boy – how could you love someone after just looking at them, and not knowing anything about them?

But they say the person is themselves only when they’re alone, and Mingyu saw the boy when he was alone many times. And that may seem stupid, but he knows everything about his habits, from biting his nails when he’s nervous to mumbling to himself when he’s angry; from scratching his neck when he’s confused to biting his lip when he’s sad.

Maybe Mingyu just really, really adores him. And he wants it to stay this way.

For his own good.

***

Mingyu has to be cautious. From the moment Jeonghan got to know about his ‘crush’ as he likes to call the boy (Mingyu objects) he is with him wherever he goes, being more obnoxious than ever. That’s why he lately doesn’t come to the beach as frequently as before; he’s afraid the boy will hear Jeonghan’s loud voice. (And admiring the boy in his friend’s presence… He would feel uncomfortable.)

But this time it worked; he swam away unnoticed, and happily made his way to the rocks guarding the beach from the waves.

For a while he thinks the boy’s not there this time, but it turns out he isn’t sitting like usual on the pier, but on the sand. There are some strings connecting his ears to the small, rectangular shiny object and Mingyu wonders how many more weird objects do humans use and what for.

But he’s excited. He hasn’t seen the boy for a while, and now he has a chance to do it from even closer distance.

He spots a rock in a place where the water gets shallow, maybe even _too_ shallow. But the thought of getting as near as it’s possible encourages him. So when the boy busies himself with the shiny thing, he quickly changes his position. His upper body is all out of water, and his tail touches the sand. He holds on to the rock as he carefully peeks from behind it. Admiring the boy he doesn’t even notice how far he leans and that he is easily visible.

He only notices it when the boy makes eye contact with him.

His stare is piercing him with confusion. His brows knit together as his face makes the defensively aggressive expression, that make him stay still.

“Who are you?!” the boy shouts as he stands up.

Without thinking Mingyu lets go of the rock, wanting to escape as quick as possible. But his hands slip, and the water is too shallow for him to dive properly, so he ends up scratching painfully his right elbow and hitting the rock with his forehead hard enough to lose consciousness.

  


“Oh, you’re awake.”

He hears the soft voice and when he opens his eyes, he sees concerned face leaning above him. He notices that the boy somehow pulled him on the beach.

The boy. The one he looked at from afar for a couple of months, now looking at him from up close. That shouldn’t happen.

“Shit,” Mingyu says and wants to get up quickly and go back to the water, but his head feels dizzy and he lies on the warm sand again.

“Stay still,” the boy says, pulling out something colorful from his pocket.

“What is it?” Mingyu asks with fear, but sees it’s the same thing the boy has on his fingers. Human chuckles.

“It’s a band aid. You cut your forehead and it’s bleeding pretty bad.”

Mingyu raises a hand to touch it, but the boy holds his wrist.

“No, you’re not going to touch it with hose dirty fingers.” He puts said band aid on his forehead and presses gently. “Now you can if you want.”

But Mingyu doesn’t do it, because he’s really confused. He gets up, this time more carefully, to sitting in front of the boy. He searches for the words to say, but he can’t find anything. All these imaginary conversations magically disappeared from his brain.

“What’s your name?” The boy asks after a while of silence, sitting himself more comfortably.

“Uh, isn’t that weird for you that I, uh...” He looks down at his tail and back at him. The boy shrugs.

“You’ve been unconscious for a while. The shock has passed,” he says calmly, but his eyes show that it isn’t one hundred percent true. He looks a little bit scared, but Mingyu can’t blame him, because he’s exactly the same. His heart hammers in his chest so hard it surpasses the headache and pain in his elbow.

“Uh, if you say so.”

Human looks at him expectantly.

“I’m Mingyu and...” his eyes dart to look at the sea. He wets his lips and looks back at him. “And I really shouldn’t talk to you now. Or ever. If the others knew about it, they would kill me. Not literally, but. You know.” He feels blush on his cheeks. The boy is staring at him, and he can’t say anything coherent because of this. His lilac fringe is so long it ends just above his eyes. _Pretty_. But he really has to go; firstly, because talking to humans was a big no-no, and secondly, because Jeonghan may start to look for him and find him here, _talking to a human_.

But since he has an opportunity…

“And what’s your name?”

“Jihoon.”

Mingyu looks at him again (not like he had his image memorized by now, but up close it’s even more beautiful) and thinks that this name really suits him. It’s cute. And somehow powerful.

“Uh, I really have to go.” He hates to see it, but every next second he spends there he feels more nervous. “I hope no one realized where I went yet. So, uh, bye Jihoon.”

Considering he’s on the beach and has to get somehow to the water, he just lies on the sand and rolls ungracefully to the sea. He has to look incredibly stupid, like a seal or even a whale, but once he is in the deep water again, he tries to forget about it.

“Jihoon,” he whispers the name to himself instead and smiles.

***

“Where were you, idiot?”

Mingyu turns to see Jeonghan with hands crossed on his chest and raised eyebrow.

“And what is it on your forehead, huh?”

Mingyu touches it and feels soft surface under his fingertips. _Band aid_ , he remembers.

Jeonghan sighs.

“This time I’m going to ignore this, and I hope there won’t be a next time. But if I’ll find you interacting with that human again...” He shakes his head. “I will personally rip off your scales, understood?”

Jeonghan’s long black hair and bloody red tail make him look very scary, so Mingyu just nods.

“Yes, understood.”

That doesn’t stop him from going to the beach the next day.

The weather isn’t as good as the day before, cold wind making him shiver when he puts his head above the surface. He thinks Jihoon probably won’t be there.

But he is, and this time he looks straight at the sea, like he’s waiting for him.

Mingyu stops behind a rock for a moment, because seriously, _what are you doing dumbass_? The elders always warn kids to not reveal themselves to humans. Because humans may kidnap mermaids and do painful things to them, and then put them into glass tanks so the other humans would look at them, just like they did with fish. It was clear, and Mingyu didn’t even for a second doubt this statement.

But Jihoon never looked like he could do all these awful things to anyone. To him, Jihoon looks a little bit scared, but also curious; just like Mingyu himself. And, if the merman isn’t deluding himself, he seems _trustworthy_. And he wants to talk to him again.

So finally, he swims closer.

He’s sitting on the pier again, the wood obviously wet, indicating that it was raining earlier. When Jihoon notices Mingyu, he smiles and closes the brown thing he’s writing in as always. Mingyu leans on the pier in some distance from the boy. Cold wind raises goosebumps on his arms and torso once they’re out of water, but he tries not to care.

“What is it?” are the first words he says, pointing at the thing in his lap.

“A notebook,” Jihoon explains. “I don’t think you have those underwater, huh?”

Mingyu shakes his head.

“So what do you do with it?”

“I write music here.” He looks at the mermaid and smiles slightly. From this small expression Mingyu can tell he really loves music.

“We also have music,” he says. “But we don’t write it. And I wouldn’t be able to sing for you.”

Jihoon furrows his brows.

“Why?”

“I… think people know legends about sailors being seduced into the water, right? Our voices are too powerful I guess.” He pouts. The boy nods. “But will _you_ sing for me?”

Jihoon blushes slightly and shakes his head. Only then Mingyu realizes how stupid his request is, given that this is their second meeting. (Well, Mingyu feels like he knows the boy really well, but it’s because he’s been watching him for such a long time.)

“Sorry,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ll get going now, the rest will realize I’m here,” he lies. He just wants to escape from the embarrassment.

“Will you come back tomorrow?” Jihoon asks and Mingyu feels his chest getting warmer.

“Yes, of course.”

***

Mingyu had expectations. Because he always tried to imagine how would it be to talk to the human, to see him up close. Reality is one hundred times better than these expectations.

The day is warm and the sun pleasantly hits his body. Jihoon’s legs are dangling from the edge of the pier where he sits, his toes barely touching the water, which is adorable.

“Jihoon?”

“Hmm?”

“How is it to have legs?”

The boy straightens them and looks at his feet, wriggling his toes and chuckles.

“I could ask you exactly the same thing about your tail.” He looks at him again.

“Oh.”

“It’s nothing special, you know,” Jihoon answers though. “I’ve been born with them, so I just live with them. Not thinking much about it.”

Mingyu nods and looks at them. This time he leans on the pier directly beside Jihoon, the distance got closer for the week of everyday meetings. He pokes his legs with his finger and realizes how pale Jihoon is in comparison to him.

Jihoon flinches a little bit and Mingyu retracts his hand quickly.

“Shit, sorry.” Of course. Who would’ve liked being touched by some sea creature?

“Don’t worry,” Jihoon assures him, like he could read his mind. (He could probably read his expression though.) “I… Sometimes don’t take skinship well. But don’t mind me.” He puts his hand beside Mingyu’s, close enough for their fingers to touch softly. “It gets better when I get closer with people.”

Mingyu nods and smiles.

That sounded like a promise.

***

Day after day Mingyu gets more and more excited for meeting Jihoon. Talking to him is the only thing he anticipates lately. He didn’t think the world above the surface would be so interesting, and talking about his own underwater experiences is also fun.

They really get closer through this short meetings. Jihoon finally stopped being so shy about his music and shared bits with Mingyu. Also, he started holding Mingyu’s hand loosely when the merman is talking, sometimes playing with his fingers. Mingyu didn’t want to let it show, but every time it happened, his heartbeat fastened.

He has a big smile on his face when he swims happily to meet the boy again, humming a song Jihoon has been singing lately. It’s completely different from siren’s songs, yet also somehow captivating.

He is so caught up in his thoughts about the boy that he doesn’t notice Jihoon is not alone this time. Fortunately he realizes when he can still hide behind a rock.

There are two men, looking older than Jihoon. Or maybe they’re not; they’re just bigger and meaner-looking, compared to lilac haired boy. They definitely don’t look friendly.

“High school ended. We graduated. Can’t you let go of it?” Jihoon sounds tired, but there’s a tension in his voice.

“Why would we?” one of them asks. “You didn’t go to the university, but we did. We couldn’t see our dear friend for a whole year. But it’s holidays now, we have plenty of time to hang out!”

Both men start laughing and it sounds creepy. Mingyu can’t see Jihoon’s face, only his back and judging by his tensed arms, he’s gripping his notebook.

Shit. If Mingyu didn’t have a tail, he could go there and tell them to fuck off, because Jihoon was so obviously scared, and he didn’t like it. But he can’t do anything besides watching them.

Second of the taller men reaches for Jihoon’s notebook and takes it after a while of struggle; it seems Jihoon’s grip is something.

“What do we have here, Jihoonie?” Mingyu winces hearing that name from the stranger’s mouth. “You’re still writing those stupid love songs?”

“Fuck off and give it back.” There’s anger in his small voice.

“Fuck off? Oh, Jihoonie, what a bad mouth do we have. If your songs are like this, it’s better if we got rid of it, don’t you think?” The one with Jihoon’s notebook asks, and without much thought he tosses it into water.

Mingyu doesn’t think much when he dives for it. He knows how important this is for Jihoon. He gets the notebook and puts it on the pier, not caring if thee men will see him. But then, he hears. He hears Jihoon’s pleads.

“Please, please don’t, I can’t swim! No, don’t please-”

He watches with wide eyes as Jihoon’s wriggling in their grip, horror on his face.

“You want that notebook of yours so dive for it!”

And then Mingyu sees Jihoon desperately waving his hands and legs when he’s being thrown into the water. It’s at the other side of pier that he currently is, but he dives faster than ever before.

He dived quickly for the notebook, because it was precious to Jihoon. But Jihoon is precious to him.

Jihoon tosses around in water, wanting to go back up. Mingyu quickly wraps his hands around him and that stops him from violently waving his limbs. But he’s still desperate for air, looking at Mingyu with big eyes, and the merman takes him up.

They resurface under the pier, just in time to hear the two men talking. Jihoon breathes loudly, but the sound is muffled by the waves and creaking wood above their heads.

“And what if he doesn’t go back? You know… I don’t want to go to jail because of that faggot.”

“He will. He just said he can’t swim because he didn’t want to get wet. Let’s get going.”

Jihoon’s breathing evens out when the footsteps on the wood are going away. Mingyu looks down on him, at his head on merman’s shoulder, small hands gripping to his biceps and soundless sobs. He hugs him tighter and when he’s sure the men are gone, he takes him to the beach.

“Go home and change, you’ll get sick,” is the first thing he says when they’re both sitting on the sand.

“It’s fucking 30 degrees Celsius, I’m not going to catch a cold,” the boy answers, but he’s shivering. Mingyu can’t say if it’s because of the cold water, shock, or stress.

“Jihoon-”

“Can I just stay a bit with you, please?”

Mingyu nods.

Jihoon is hugging his knees close to his chest and looks really, really miserable. Mingyu wants to do something, but hugging him in this moment doesn’t seem too comfortable, so he just puts his hand on his shoulder.

“Who were these guys?” He asks carefully.

“Did you see it all?”

Mingyu isn’t sure if he caught the very beginning, but he nods anyway.

“I think.”

“They were guys from my old school,” he answers. “They… didn’t like me. But liked making fun of me.”

“Why?” Mingyu asks calmly, but he’s angry inside. How could anyone hate Jihoon? Sweet, cute, talented Jihoon?”

The boy shrugs.

“Because of my height. Because my hobbies aren’t football and other ‘manly’ things like sports. Because I’m bi, but for them it’s just equal to being gay.”

Mingyu frowns.

“What does that mean?”

He smiles. It’s the smile Mingyu sees every time he has to explain something from the human world to him.

“Gay means someone who likes the same gender as their. And bi means someone who likes more. I’m bi because I like girls and boys equally.”

“Oh,” he says, and his frown deepens. “So there are girls who like only girls, and girls who like only boys, and...”

“Yeah.”

“Weird.”

“Why?”

“We don’t have words like that, because, uh… You could say our kind likes everyone? Despite their gender? But why do they hate you for that?”

Jihoon blinks faster, like he was trying hard not to cry.

“Because for the most of people liking something other than opposite gender is not normal.”

Mingyu starts to wonder. And he knows saying things he wants to say now is risky, but he feels it’s now or never.

“So… If you like both girls and boys… Is there a chance you could like… Me? Because I know you could call me a boy, but I’m not human, and I don’t know if...”

He feels Jihoon straddling him and sitting on his tail. He looks up at him. There are traces of tears on his face and the water is dripping from his hair onto Mingyu’s chest.

“The species doesn’t have anything to do with this,” he says firmly, and then looks away. “And I already like you more than you could think.”

Mingyu’s heart is beating fast, faster than ever, and he doesn’t really know what to say, because anything that comes to his mind doesn’t sound right, so he just takes his face in his hands and kisses him.

And Jihoon is surprised at first, but quickly starts kissing back, hands on Mingyu’s shoulders. One moment and Mingyu loses his balance, so now his back is on the warm sand and Jihoon is hovering above him. They’re still kissing and it’s amazing.

After a while Jihoon pulls back, out of breath, and Mingyu notices how he’s still shivering and there are goosebumps on his skin, and it certainly isn’t an effect of Mingyu’s kissing skills. Maybe it is 30 degrees, whatever that means, but the water’s still cold, and the wind is not exactly warm either.

“Jihoon, go home now, please. You really will be sick.”

Jihoon bites his lower lip but nods and gets up.

“Thank you for saving me,” he says and starts running in the direction of his home. Only then Mingyu remembers about his notebook. So he gets back to water and swims to the pier, where he left it. He leans on the wood and carefully opens the notebook, peels one page after one, because they’re stuck together, and tries to dry it in the sun.

He finishes in the evening. The writing on some pages got blurred, and they aren’t as smooth as before, but the songs are saved.

He hides it under a small rock on the beach and leaves it to pick up tomorrow.

***

The following day Jihoon doesn’t show up. Mingyu waits and waits, but he can’t do it too long – he has to go back, his long absence the previous day made Jeonghan and some other mermen suspicious about him.

He hopes Jihoon didn’t get sick.

But _of course_ , Jihoon got sick. He gets to know it the next day, when the boy comes in a sweater despite the hot weather, and his nose is red.

“Sorry I didn’t come yesterday,” he says as they sit on the beach. “I caught a cold.”

“I told you so.”

Jihoon glares at him. Mingyu chuckles.

“Okay, but I’ve got something that hopefully will make you a little bit better.” Mingyu reaches to the rock he made sure to remember and gets the notebook. “Here.”

Jihoon takes it and looks at it like he couldn’t believe what he has in his hands. He opens it and looks through the pages. Then he looks at Mingyu.

“You saved it?”

He smiles.

“Yeah, but I forgot to give it to you then. Everything’s alright with it?”

“Of course, I- thank you so much, Mingyu,” he exclaims and kisses him straight on the mouth. It’s a quick peck, but enough to make Mingyu dizzy. Jihoon gets flustered after.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have.” The merman wants to ask why, but right after Jihoon sneezes. “I don’t know if you can get sick like a human, so…”

Mingyu smiles with relief and shrugs.

“Don’t know. But how are you feeling?”

“Better than if I was dead at the bottom of the ocean, thank you.”

There’s a while of silence, when Jihoon looks through his notebook, hands smoothing down the pages, and Mingyu looks at him, admiring the boy as always.

He’s so in love with him.

He’s in love and it scares him. Because he shouldn’t have fallen for a human.

He knows very well that every mermaid and merman goes through the phase of being fascinated by humans. But it usually passes when they get older, and settle for happy life underwater, away from them.

Mingyu though doesn’t think he will grow out of this, because it’s not a phase. Maybe Jeonghan was right and Jihoon was his crush before, but crushes are unstable. And when he’s seen these men being so violent to him, when he had to save him from drowning, he realized that it’s more than that.

He wants to be able to protect him. He wants to be with him not only for a few hours on the beach, he wants to be with him all day and night, everywhere he goes. He wants to hug him freely, kiss him even if he’s sick, take care of him when he’s not feeling well.

Mingyu’s heart breaks when he thinks about how much there is between them, how hopeless this relationship is. If there’s any relationship to begin with.

“Mingyu… You’re alive?” Jihoon asks him and pokes his stomach with a finger. It’s a little bit above his belly button, where his scales start to show up sparsely, getting more dense just below it.

“Yeah...” he answers, holding his breath. Jihoon’s hand lingers on his skin, trails down to touch his scales properly, and Mingyu stops every movement. His fin just trembles slightly when Jihoon looks up and touches softly his gills, now useless since he’s above the surface. Finally, he touches his face. His hands, much smaller than Mingyu’s, cup his cheeks as their lips touch. The kiss is warm, like the evening sun leaving orange glow on the sky. Like the sand on a particularly hot day. Like two bodies pressed closed together, wanting to get even closer.

When they separate, Mingyu sees a gleam of red between the waves.

Jeonghan.

He looks at Jihoon, his hands still on the boy’s waist.

“I’m sorry, I think I need to go,” he says and Jihoon nods.

“Me too. If my mom knows I sneaked out to go to the beach when I have a cold she will kill me.”

So Jihoon gets up and goes back home, and Mingyu watches him for a while before getting back to water and mentally preparing for the talk with Jeonghan.

***

Jeonghan is swimming away in the distance. Mingyu follows him, but can’t catch up to him; his older friend was always faster than him. Finally, he stops in a dark place, away from other mermaids.

“I knew it,” he says when Mingyu catches up to him.

“Jeonghan, I-”

“I don’t care what you want to say. You promised me you won’t meet that human again. I suspected something when you still were nowhere to be seen, but I hoped. I hoped that you only watch him from afar. And today I see you with him, _kissing_.”

Mingyu gulps.

“Well, sorry hyung, but-”

“No. Don’t apologize. I know you’re not sorry at all.”

Mingyu looks down. He is. He is sorry, but… not that much. Not enough.

Jeonghan sniffs and Mingyu looks up at him. If they were above the surface, there would be tears rolling down his cheeks.

“What is it so interesting in humans anyway? There are many beautiful mermaids and mermen. Why is it him?”

Mingyu shrugs. He doesn’t want to start ranting about what he loves about Jihoon. But something strikes him.

“Hyung… Are you...”

“In love with you? No.” He shakes his head. “But either way I feel betrayed, you know? Cheated on.” Jeonghan looks away. “You know how important you are to me as a friend. You’re the only person that really cares about me. Or cared?” He scoffs.

“Jeonghan hyung, please. Listen to me.” He takes the older’s hands in his. “I still care about you. I still want to take care of you. But Jihoon...”

Jeonghan frees his hands from Mingyu’s grip and looks at him with reddened eyes.

“I should have known. That friendship is nothing compared to romantic love.” He takes a deep breath through his gills and turns around to swim away. “Don’t talk to me. It will be better if you leave me by myself. All alone. Like the rest of our people,” he says over his shoulder and then he escapes quickly.

The younger merman looks at him disappearing in darkness and his heart clenches.

***

Mingyu is trying to fall asleep in his cave, but it isn’t that easy. Suddenly the rock he always sleeps on isn’t as comfortable as always, and tossing from one side to another isn’t helping as well. Jeonghan’s words from earlier are haunting him.

There are two sides. One wants to be with Jihoon, hug and kiss him. The second wants to tell Jeonghan it was selfish of him, that knowing his situation he should stay with his friend, not go somewhere up.

But he knows which side is stronger. And it makes him sad.

Suddenly, there is a movement at the entrance of the cave. Mingyu braces himself, but the soft whisper reveals who the intruder is.

“Mingyu? It’s me,” Jeonghan says.

“What do you want?” It comes off more rude than he wanted. “I mean- what is it, hyung?”

Even with his sight being so good in the darkness he barely sees the other merman. Fortunately, Jeonghan gets closer and sits at the edge of the rock he is laying on.

“Mingyu, I was thinking.”

He nodded. What could he say, honestly?

“And… And it hurts to say, but it would hurt more if I kept it from you.”

“What are you talking about?”

Jeonghan’s eyes gleam in the darkness.

“I know how you can become human.”

***

“Are you sure?” Mingyu asks for the umpteenth time as they swim through the dark waters.

“Yes, I’m sure Gyu.” He could swear Jeonghan just rolled his eyes. “I’ll manage here alone. I think… No, I know you’ll be happier there with him, than here with me.”

“Hyung...”

Jeonghan stops and Mingyu nearly crashes into him.

“Mingyu. I know I’m fucked up. I know it’s hard with me. Please, do something for yourself for a change.”

The younger looks at him in silence for a while, and then they start swimming again. He feels guilty. But also happy. Weird mix of feelings.

They finally reach their destination. It’s a cave in one of the deeper places of their tribe territories. There’s an older mermaid, obviously waiting for them. Mingyu looks at her and feels intimidated just by her gaze fixed on him.

“Jeonghan, is this him?” She asks, shifting her gaze to the other merman.

“Yes, teacher.” Jeonghan bows his head. _Teacher?_ Mingyu frowns.

“Come here, boy.”

Mingyu swims closer to her. She looks at him up close, examining his face and then entire body.

“Handsome. Well built. He’ll manage out there,” she decides. He gulps.

“How will you turn me human?”

She shakes her head and smiles, but it’s one of these smiles you’re afraid of, because when they appear, something bad will surely happen.

And it happens.

“Me? No. Jeonghan will do it.”

Mingyu frowns.

“Jeonghan?”

His friend looks away, and the mermaid explains.

“He’s the same as me. Has a power to do it.”

Mingyu isn’t sure what _power_ she means and in what they are the same, but he grasps the general concept.

“Is that true?”

Long haired merman nods.

“That’s what I discovered some time ago. That’s why I didn’t realize at first that after promising me you won’t meet with the human again you broke the promise – I was here. Learning. About my powers.” He looks at his hands. “Sorry Mingyu. I should’ve told you.”

The woman claps her hands.

“Okay boys, now let’s get to the business. It will get brighter soon, and it won’t work that way. Jeonghan, do it how I told you.”

Jeonghan nods and turns fully to Mingyu. There’s sadness in his eyes and the younger can’t tell what is it caused by. Mingyu’s decision to leave him? Or his decision to tell him about his power?

It turns out to be something different.

“I’m sorry Mingyu, but I’ll have to take your voice as a payment.”

“What?” Mingyu screeches and Jeonghan sighs.

“I wish you well, my friend.”

The last thing very confused Mingyu sees is Jeonghan’s face and his black hair floating like a halo around his head.

***

It’s cold.

There’s wind that makes goosebumps appear on his skin, and the sand is not a little bit comfortable.

Mingyu blinks, trying to shoo the sleepiness away. He rubs his eyes and blinks once again. He’s on the beach he always meets Jihoon at. The sun rises from behind the trees, and on the opposite side the sea looks peaceful in the grayness of the morning. There’s a weird feeling in the lower part of his body; Mingyu looks down and his breath hitches.

He really has legs.

He tries to raise one, but it’s heavy and his muscles aren’t so good yet. So he wriggles his toes instead and giggles, because it looks so funny. Everything is funny – there aren’t scales on his body, only hair, and his neck is unusually smooth.

But then he shivers again because of the wind and realizes he’s naked. It didn’t bother him when he was a merman, but now he starts to feel uncomfortable. And because of this – and his not really working legs – he can’t go to Jihoon’s home. Well, even if he could do it, he doesn’t know where it is. So the best solution for now seems to just wait – but it’s only early morning now, and he meets Jihoon usually sometime after noon.

He sighs, feeling his stomach grumble. Right – he didn’t eat anything since his fight with Jeonghan. So technically he ate last time before he met Jihoon the previous day.

Mingyu manages to pull his legs up to his chest and he hugs them, putting his forehead on his knees, like he’s seen Jihoon do it.

He waits.

***

Jihoon finds him a few hours later. He hears footsteps and looks up, to see him with surprised expression on his face.

“Mingyu?”

_Jihoon_ , he wants to say, but nothing comes out of his mouth. Right – he traded his voice for legs. What even is this price?

The boy looks at him in disbelief and kneels next to him.

“Mingyu, you… How? Why?”

He wants to say it all. Tell him how he realized that he couldn’t live with just short meetings – or dates – and be happy. Tell him how his friend turned out to have the power turn him human. How his friend really didn’t want to do it, but he did it anyway for him, and it was so selfless that he wants to hug him and thank him a million times, because he didn’t have the opportunity before.

But he can’t.

So he just gestures to his neck and mouth and shakes his head. Jihoon frowns.

“Wait. You mean you can’t talk?”

Mingyu nods.

Jihoon laughs and it sounds a little bit hysteric. Mingyu furrows his brows and mouths ‘what?’.

“There’s a story in our world. About a mermaid giving up her voice so she can be with the prince she fell in love with.” He shakes his head. “Guess it’s not only a fairytale then,” he hums. Only then Mingyu notices Jihoon’s hand on his knee. Mingyu puts his hand on it and Jihoon smiles faintly.

“Okay. Okay.” He runs his second hand through his hair and bites his lower lip. “I live quite close. I will bring you some clothes and then we’ll come home together, okay?”

Mingyu nods again.

Jihoon stands up and he lets go of his hand. Before he can head home, he takes off his white t-shirt and gives him. Mingyu feels the heat in his cheeks, because this is the first time he sees him shirtless and he feels embarrassed.

“Put it on your...” Jihoon gestures to his crotch and Mingyu sees a blush on his cheeks. “I’ll be here as fast as I can,” he promises and runs off.

He gets back in ten minutes, this time with another shirt on and some colorful fabric in his hands.

“I- you’re obviously bigger than me, and my dad isn’t much taller too, but I found Wonwoo’s – I mean, my friend’s – pajamas from the time he used to sleep over in my house, and it should be okay, so we can try and put it on you,” he rambles. Mingyu doesn’t know what _pajamas_ means, he only sees it’s matching t-shirt and pants, so he takes it from Jihoon’s hands and tries to put it on. Of course it’s not that easy, but the boy helps and they manage to do it.

Standing up is a lot more difficult. When he manages to do it, leaning almost completely on Jihoon, they notice he’s _much_ taller than the boy, who grumbles something about “these fucking giants” and “where do they raise them to be so tall”. He pretends he doesn’t hear that.

_Walking_ is even harder. Raising his legs up, one after the other, is really tiring. It takes them a lot more time, with Mingyu basically laying on Jihoon’s back, but they finally make it home.

Mingyu doesn’t know where he should look. Everything’s so new and foreign, weird objects made from weird materials, weird shapes and colors. He wants to ask Jihoon about everything, but he knows now it’s not the time.

Later.

But Jihoon sees his curious stare once he sits him on something, so he explains that this is chair, and this wooden thing beside it is a table.

He sits on the chair beside him and sighs. Mingyu can clearly see he’s nervous. He wants to do something, so he extends his hand and Jihoon holds it; he entwines their fingers.

“Okay. So. We need to get you clothes big enough for you. Make you a place to sleep. We don’t have any guest room, but there will be enough place in my room if I’ll clean up. And we’ll probably need to find you a job. My dad’s a fisherman, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for you, so you can work with me and my mom in our flower shop.” He gasps suddenly. “Shit, parents.” He massages his forehead with his other hand. “I’m sure they will help, don’t worry. I don’t know if they’ll believe if I’ll tell them you were a merman, but… They’ll help. For sure. Wonwoo too. He’s a good friend, sometimes annoyingly pretentious, especially since he got into uni this year, but he’s really a good guy.” Mingyu notices that Jihoon, who doesn’t usually talk much, actually starts rambling when he’s nervous. _That’s kinda cute._ But he also notices that there is so much to do, and he suddenly feels that he becoming human is such a burden for Jihoon. Maybe it would be easier to stay in the water? Meet him from time to time and nothing more? “...and the family register. We need to think about that too. And maybe we should learn sign language, so we can-”

Mingyu silences him by putting a finger on his lips. He carefully mouths words, making sure Jihoon would understand.

_I’m sorry I made everything so hard for you._

“Sorry for what?” Jihoon sighs and stands up. He stands between Mingyu’s legs and puts his hands on his cheeks, so he will look up at him. “Listen. It will… It will be hard, of course. And I’m really surprised that you did that. You know… You’re human now. It will be difficult for you too. But...” A small smile appears on his lips. “But I’m happy too, you know? Because I didn’t imagine our relationship could be… _real_. But now it can be. And as much as I’ll miss your tail, and you being topless all the time-” they both chuckle, “I’m glad. There are so many things to take care of, but. We can do it. We’ll manage, right?”

Mingyu nods, now a smile on his face. His heart, which was clenched earlier, now feels warm. Yeah, they’ll manage.

_I love you_ , he mouths and Jihoon smiles sweetly.

“I love you too, Mingyu,” he says and presses a kiss to his forehead.

Mingyu hugs him close, pressing his face into the boy’s shoulder. In this moment he can feel that he – no, they’re – will be okay.

After a while there’s a noise from the front door and there’s a call.

“Jihoon?” low voice says and the two separate.

“In the kitchen!” Jihoon shouts and a few seconds later there’s a boy, stopping abruptly when he notices them. He is tall, has black hair and something looking like round wires with glass on his face.

“Uh, Jihoon… Why is this guy wearing my pajamas? And who is he?”

Jihoon scoffs.

“Better tell me why you’re using your spare key again, Wonwoo. I told you it’s only for emergencies,” the boy says, but still has one hand around Mingyu’s shoulders. The now ex-merman tries to suppress the smile on his lips.

“But what’s the point of having it and barely using?” Said Wonwoo pouts. “And you didn’t answer my question!”

Jihoon looks quickly at Mingyu, and then back at his friend.

“Well, I can tell you, but it’s quite a weird story and I’m not sure you’ll believe me.”

Wonwoo sits on the chair Jihoon was sitting on earlier, crossing his arms on his chest.

“Try me.”

So Jihoon sits on Mingyu’s lap and starts telling the story.

**Author's Note:**

> • thanks for reading!! ily (_＾∇＾)･_･)η  
> • as always, you can follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/bbywooz) for updates and spoilers or ask me something anonymously on [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/klarkson)  
> • also!! i will probably write a sequel for jeonghan, but please tell me if you'd like to read it, that would make me more motivated :)


End file.
